China Bans Battlefield 4

China Bans Battlefield 4

The Chinese Government has banned Battlefield 4, claiming it as a threat to national security.

The publisher of the Battlefield series, EA, has been accused of depicting a form of cultural invasion. China’s Ministry of Culture issued a notice prohibiting all materials related to the game in any form, including game downloads, demos, patch downloads, and news reports.

Released earlier this month, the expansion pack Battlefield 4: China Rising follows a fictional invasion of the US by China in the year 2020.

Battlefield 4 has been plagued with issues since release, including glitches and a class action lawsuit for allegedly releasing “materially false and misleading statements highlighting the purported strength” of the game.

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I think it’s worth being more clear about the details of the EA-BF4 lawsuit – it’s not about false advertising, or even about releasing a faulty product, it’s about (allegedly) deliberately misstating revenue estimates to stockholders while internally expecting the game would not sell as well. I guess “stock manipulation” is an acceptable compact phrase.

This reminds me of when that awful Red Dawn remake was delayed for a year so they could CGI the flags of the invading army to be North Korean instead of Chinese, just to avoid the film being banned in China.

“Released earlier this month, the expansion pack Battlefield 4: China Rising follows a fictional invasion of the US by China in the year 2020.”

Where did you get this information? All 5 maps in the expansion occur in unspecified locations in China. I don’t even think there is any context to the multiplayer, the locations are just meant to be eye candy and fun to play in. It’s kind of funny that the Chinese government considers the game to be a “cultural invasion” since the Chinese faction has the coolest-looking vehicles, weapons and infantry uniforms (it’s subjective of course, but if anything the multiplayer portrays the Chinese army in a pretty good light).

First of all, it’s politics.
Secondly, commies have very little to relate to, culturally and historically, so anything that could possibly diminish the mythos they’re building is considered offensive and actions are being taken.